Would a PSP be worth the cost?

[PikoPiko]

Well, I'm considering buying a PSP but I'm not sure if $170 is a sound price(which is its current price). I already have a Nintendo DS which has a couple of games coming out soon that I want.

Anyway here are games for the PSP I want(in no particular order):
1.Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
2.Tales of Rebirth
3.Tales of Destiny 2
4.Final Fantasy Tactics:WotL
5.Star Ocean 1
6.Star Ocean 2
7.Riviera

OR, I could just stick to my DS and buy these games:
1.Tales of Innocence
2.Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One
3.Dragon Quest 4
4.Dragon Quest 5
5.Dragon Quest 6
6.Chrono Trigger DS

So, those who have a PSP, is it worth the price? I'd rather not waste my money again after the rather lack luster Wii(well, that's my opinion, at least).
Can any of you help me make a choice?

[pedrocasilva]

Well, I'd say DS all the way if you havent got one, there's simply a mad ammount of RPG's coming.

A PSP is worth having too though, but it would never be my main choice based on catalog alone at this point. I'd say if I bought a PSP it was because of portable emulation even.

So basically, it's not that it's not worth the price, but DS is worth it more.

Your catalog is too reductive of it though... Riviera is a GBA port (therefore runs on the DS), sure it is enhanced BUT... You mention FFTactics on PSP, that's a port of the PSone version ... and badly ported I'm afraid, I have it, it has slowdown, it's a TOSE work... and thus I rather run the emulated version through emulation, valkyrie profile is also badly ported (TOSE strikes again) too much zoom at times and too much loading, running it through UMD eats batteries.

Coming back to FFTactics though... it's as aforementioned a port of the PSone one... whereas DS has the new one FFTA2, also, both being Ivalice Alliance games, DS also has another one that enters to that "aliance" FFXII Revenant Wings. (sort of an RTS)

Also, on the DS side... don't count on Tales of Innocence coming, you'll have to use the fan translation.


Anyway... As for other DS RPG's you should look forward to: (click the links )

World Destruction (Yasumi Mitsuda and Masato Kato from Chrono Trigger fame) - (theme music)
Soma Bringer (Monolith+Yasumi Mitsuda)
Sigma Harmonics (Square-Enix)
Avalon Code (FFIII and FFIV DS team)
Winds of Nostalgia (FFIII and FFIV DS team+Red Entertainment+Tecmo) - no vids, think skies of arcadia vibe -
Inazuma Eleven (Level-5)
RIZ-ZOAWD (Media Vision=Wild Arms team) - Wizard OZ RPG -
The World Ends With You (Square-Enix, KH: Chain of Memories team)
Tales of Hearts (Team Destiny)
Infinite Line (Steel Battalion Team)
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (Bioware)
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled (Chrono Trigger clone)
Baten Kaitos DS (confirmed in famitsu, no real info)

Others:

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light
FFTA2
FFXII:RW
FFIII
FFIV
DQIX
Archaic Sealed Heat (ASH, done by mistwalker)
Front Mission
Front Mission 2089
DQM:Joker
Blue Dragon DS
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 days
Rune Factory (there's a sequel out already)
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (chunsoft)
Children of Mana
Luminous Arc (sequel coming)

And I could go on, I think.

[Craymel]

Your catalog is too reductive of it though... Riviera is a GBA port (therefore runs on the DS), sure it is enhanced BUT... You mention FFTactics on PSP, that's a port of the PSone version ... and badly ported I'm afraid, I have it, it has slowdown, it's a TOSE work... and thus I rather run the emulated version through emulation, valkyrie profile is also badly ported (TOSE strikes again) too much zoom at times and too much loading, running it through UMD eats batteries.

Coming back to FFTactics though... it's as aforementioned a port of the PSone one... whereas DS has the new one FFTA2, also, both being Ivalice Alliance games, DS also has another one that enters to that "aliance" FFXII Revenant Wings. (sort of an RTS)

Just a few points on ff tactics being a bad port. I really have to disagree. First the slow downs you mentioned are already prevalent in the psx version of the game. The game plays the same on the psp. Also they completely rewrote the script. It's very well writen. They also added cg cutscenes. The voice acting in the cutscenes is amazing. As a big dub hater that's saying alot. They also added multyplayer and co-op play (not online though). Last thing is the two etra classes. All in all, the psp version of final fantasy tactics is the superior version. Just couldn't help but defend  the fft remake.

[pedrocasilva]

Just a few points on ff tactics being a bad port. I really have to disagree. First the slow downs you mentioned are already prevalent in the psx version of the game. The game plays the same on the psp. Also they completely rewrote the script. It's very well writen. They also added cg cutscenes. The voice acting in the cutscenes is amazing. As a big dub hater that's saying alot. They also added multyplayer and co-op play (not online though). Last thing is the two etra classes. All in all, the psp version of final fantasy tactics is the superior version. Just couldn't help but defend  the fft remake.

I found them worse, but I won't argue on that if you say so, might try again one of these days though, since I've gotten that impression that I put it in the box and actually did the psx eboot for the psone version. I'm still going with the "I'm pretty sure it was worse" (regarding framerate) though.

As for cutscenes... well I liked their style, and that's something hard for me to find a "good inclusion", I mean, I totally hate the new cutscenes in... Valkyrie Profile PSP, just like I hated them in PSX FF's and Chrono Trigger anime cutscenes.

But still, even if the translation is better (didn't notice that) it's essentially the PSone FFTactics ported.

[Kajitani-Eizan]

First the slow downs you mentioned are already prevalent in the psx version of the game. The game plays the same on the psp.

i haven't seen it in person, but from what i've seen on youtube, this is patently untrue. the graphical effects grind to a crawl on the PSP, while they're perfectly fine on the PSX. additionally, you miss out on the PSX's great (?) translation.

the rest is great, though.

[PikoPiko]

i haven't seen it in person, but from what i've seen on youtube, this is patently untrue. the graphical effects grind to a crawl on the PSP, while they're perfectly fine on the PSX. additionally, you miss out on the PSX's great (?) translation.

the rest is great, though.

The original Final Fantasy Tactics had a poor translation, it was pretty engrishy.
Anyway... thanks for the feed back it's pretty sad to see that the PSP is full of ports with some being butchered in the process of being ported. So I will keep using my DS plus the lots of Role Playing Games coming soon because I don't want to use a PSP for home brews or piracy.

Thanks for the help everybody! So many DS games to look forward to! And thanks for the list Pedro.

Also, on the DS side... don't count on Tales of Innocence coming, you'll have to use the fan translation.

I'll be playing it in Japanese even if Absolute Zero's translation finishes before I obtain ToI due to my hate for any kind of piracy.

[pedrocasilva]

The original Final Fantasy Tactics had a poor translation, it was pretty engrishy.

probably failed to notice back then because I'm not a native speaker and back when FFTactics came out I didn't have the practice I have today.

Anyway... thanks for the feed back it's pretty sad to see that the PSP is full of ports with some being butchered in the process of being ported. So I will keep using my DS plus the lots of Role Playing Games coming soon because I don't want to use a PSP for home brews or piracy.

I thought you didn't have a DS. If you have a DS I think PSP is a good purchase, I just don't believe it is a better purchase than a DS. (for those who haven't got one)

PSP is full of ports, yeah, but if it was up to me, it would have even more ports; not just PSone ones too (those I can play through emulation), but PS2 ones. for instance, FFX could more or less run on that if well ported, as could Tales of the Abyss and other adaptations... And like I care, it's portable :p I bought it to play emulated chrono cross. This said, I think a PSP is only really worth it for such, homebrew and emulators (popsloader, the official sony psone emulator being the best). I never ran a ISO from it though. So it's like... piracy is a extra step you don't have to take.

It's not just ports though, there's Jean D'Arc, Valhalla Knights and the like. This said I haven't played them yet, but plan to get at least Jean D'Arc sometime. They'll surely be better than "Crisis-Core-the-button-masher", I think. (that's how I felt about that title)

Thanks for the help everybody! So many DS games to look forward to! And thanks for the list Pedro.I'll be playing it in Japanese even if Absolute Zero's translation finishes before I obtain ToI due to my hate for any kind of piracy.

Using the translation itself is not piracy, providing you have the original. (still have to purchase it sometime though, I bought Tales of the Tempest, yuck)

Biggest con is having to have a R4 to run that, which I don't, but the knowledge of such fan translation coming has tilted me towards it, perhaps i'll pick one up.

These days for instance, I never play games a ISO of a game I don't own... But, sometimes I purchase the game and wait/play only the ISO (mostly due to disliking dubs, and the advent of ubdubs in most PS2 RPG's makes me not use my original copy)

You're welcome about the list, I myself might use it for future reference, too much titles coming to know from head... and Suikoden DS was announced today

[PikoPiko]

I thought you didn't have a DS. If you have a DS I think PSP is a good purchase, I just don't believe it is a better purchase than a DS. (for those who haven't got one)

Well, I'm considering buying a PSP but I'm not sure if $170 is a sound price(which is its current price). I already have a Nintendo DS which has a couple of games coming out soon that I want.

Uhh, Didn't I make myself clear that I do have a DS in the first post?
Anyway... I thought about it for a while and I think I'll buy a PSP later on when they are cheaper, like when the next video game generation comes? I don't want to miss out  on Star Ocean 1, Star Ocean 2, and the Tales games for the PSP but that's not enough of a reason to buy one now. Expecially since I'll need to buy a larger memory stick if I want to use it for music or something.

And about the Tales of Innocence translation, you will need to make a backup copy of your own copy of Tales of Innocence to play the translation which is illegal(check the back of a game manual or something like Nintendo's official website for proof). It's also illegal to modify games too, well... I think it is. I should of said that instead of "piracy" before, sorry.

[Craymel]

Even if making you're own copy of the game you bought for personal use is illegal, as long as you don't distribute the copy you're in no way hurting  the company. You've already supported them buy buying their game even if they're not supporting any of their english speaking fans by releasing a translated version.

[jajaswipo]

i once thought gaming on the go was a good idea. now my psp and ds just sit collecting dust. handhelds in this generation are mainly good if ur hooking up with friends. I remember in my stat class my and my seven other friends would play mario kart during the entire period. What was even more funny is that we all be so close together that when someone got the blue shell it would knock out  all of us and all of us at that moment of time would start yelling forgetting that we were in class lol. but as an owner of both handhelds, id say its not worth. Most importantly the games are not worth the amount of money they ask for.

[aether_orange]

Sony has announced yet another version of the PSP to be released in the near future, so you might want to wait for that one, in case you're thinking of using custom firmware.

[Belegorm]

If you're going to go completely 100% legal in every way, then no, I wouldn't recommend the PSP.  Even though the Dracula X Chronicles are, IMO, amazing (two of my favorite games ever together, with a so-so remake of the one).

Now, that said, if you want to go in the grey area, then I'd definately suggest the PSP.  Emulation is very, very useful.  SNES, Sega CD, PS1, MSX, practically every console is emulated (and I've looked for some of these consoles, like for instance, the TurboDuo, and they're extremely hard to find and expensive).

Plus, even if you do buy one and only play ordinary PSP games on it legally, you can still brick it.  You crash it, or shut it off by accident during any update, and it's a brick --- unless you take the questionable route, buying a Pandora's Battery, and turning your PSP firmware back to 1.50 (it can also do this without having to brick it).  From there, on to CFW.

BTW, I probably wouldn't have gotten a PSP for a long time, except for that Pandora's Battery.  A friend bricked his, bought a new one, later found out about the battery, and restored it to me to use.  All I had to do was buy a memory stick, put CFW on it, and I was ready to go.  How's that for a steal?

[Gamesoul Master]

For the record, while they did a good job of retranslating FFT for PSP (and the little extras are fairly neat), the lag during attack/magic animations is really frustrating, as well as the slowdowns. They aren't really noticeable on the PS1 version (I play/mod it avidly, so I know it quite well). The PSP was such that I couldn't play it past a few battles simply because the problems were too frustrating for me. Some people aren't so bothered by the slowdowns though, so don't take what I say to mean that the slowdowns are completely unbearable.

On the area of getting a PSP, I say it's completely worthwhile. While the PSP game collection isn't all that great, there are a lot of great games coming out for it. And the ability to mod the firmware and play emulators for just about every 16-bit and lower console/handheld (and PS1 of course) makes it very exciting and fun to have on the go (and sometimes even at home).

And I'm not sure if this has changed in newer OFW, but I like having so many less restrictions on video files (what they are and where they go). Not to mention the media players you have to choose from.

There really are just a lot of things you can do with a PSP that makes the price tag so much more worth it (if you decide not to keep OFW on it). If you don't want to use CFW to unlock the full potential of the PSP though, don't bother getting one unless you have a lot of extra money to throw around and there ends up being a lot of worthwhile games that you *really* want to get.

[Cless]

Does raising the clock rate of the CPU using CFW have any effect on FFT PSP's slowdown? I never really heard anything about it. I can't test it myself since I don't have the game.

[pedrocasilva]

Does raising the clock rate of the CPU using CFW have any effect on FFT PSP's slowdown? I never really heard anything about it. I can't test it myself since I don't have the game.

Hmmm, never thought of it... I'll look into that, I last played it when I didn't have custom firmware to force that.

Not today though, today is nonstop PS2 RPG night

On the area of getting a PSP, I say it's completely worthwhile. While the PSP game collection isn't all that great, there are a lot of great games coming out for it. And the ability to mod the firmware and play emulators for just about every 16-bit and lower console/handheld (and PS1 of course) makes it very exciting and fun to have on the go (and sometimes even at home).

shame SNES emulation is not as good as it could be, I mean, programmers and their bad habit to port PC stuff over, SNES emulation is more laggy (and with more glitches) than PSone's, sadly.

I wish someone would step up on that, GBA is perfect (because they didn't port visualboy from PC, might I add!), PSone is Sony's emulator, SNES is meh (because they ported snes9x), sure it plays stuff fine, chrono trigger doesn't have slow music in menu's if you turn frameskip to auto, but it won't even boot Star Ocean (yeah, I know remake coming, but I like the original, just like Tales of Phantasia) Tales of Phantasia is slow as hell... and FF6 slower paced music next to the original creeps me. I mean it works but it's less than ideal (oh and Tetris attack is slow as hell as well)

Needs work, and I hope they get to it.

And I'm not sure if this has changed in newer OFW, but I like having so many less restrictions on video files (what they are and where they go). Not to mention the media players you have to choose from.

Hmmm, dunno about that, never found a way to run regular 640x360/640x480 divX files full speed on it, just those media players that oblige me to re-encode the thing, something I dislike.

I have Core something on a less powerfull PDA and it reads divX like a charm, they ought to do the "ultimate" psp media center software yet.

Can you confirm the "does FFT overclocked to 333 MHz get rid of the slowdowns"?

[Gamesoul Master]

shame SNES emulation is not as good as it could be, I mean, programmers and their bad habit to port PC stuff over, SNES emulation is more laggy (and with more glitches) than PSone's, sadly.

I wish someone would step up on that, GBA is perfect (because they didn't port visualboy from PC, might I add!), PSone is Sony's emulator, SNES is meh (because they ported snes9x), sure it plays stuff fine, chrono trigger doesn't have slow music in menu's if you turn frameskip to auto, but it won't even boot Star Ocean (yeah, I know remake coming, but I like the original, just like Tales of Phantasia) Tales of Phantasia is slow as hell... and FF6 slower paced music next to the original creeps me. I mean it works but it's less than ideal (oh and Tetris attack is slow as hell as well)

I agree that they should build more emulators from the ground up for the PSP instead of porting existing ones. However, the more recent "test" releases have shown some good progress on the SNES front. Specifically, Snes9xTYLsmcm Test 5 (the most recent version, and also considered the best by pretty much the whole scene) has made quite a bit of progress. My PSP needs to charge currently, so I'll come back tomorrow and elaborate a little bit on it (unless you've tried it already).

Hmmm, dunno about that, never found a way to run regular 640x360/640x480 divX files full speed on it, just those media players that oblige me to re-encode the thing, something I dislike.

Well, we don't get *that* kind of unrestricted use yet, but I was more referring to all the different options for high-quality rips (mostly what's already supported via OFW) and the lack of restrictions on naming or placement. And the more frustrating part about having to convert to one of the allowed formats is the time it takes to transcode (*especially* with video files that are in an "HD" format). When more codecs and containers are supported, I'll be a lot more inclined to putting videos on my PSP. I'm just thankful that the CFW gives *some* relief to the restrictions on putting videos on the PSP. In that regard, I take back some of the (unintended) excitement shown in my last post on this topic... )

Can you confirm the "does FFT overclocked to 333 MHz get rid of the slowdowns"?

I will give it a shot. I'll try it using the UMD and an ISO (I rip most of my games to ISO for decreased loading times and because my 8 GB Sony memory card can handle it... ). FFT:WotL was one of the games I ripped before I even tried it (I had heard about the slowdowns already... lol), so I don't know at the moment whether the slowdowns were decreased at all. Not sure if it'll help though, as the slowdowns seem to feel more like a programming problem than a loading time problem. I'll be hoping for positive results though, because I really like the idea (I too have never heard of anybody trying this).

But as I said, I have to let my PSP charge first since I ran the battery down to almost no power. It only takes a couple hours to charge (I use the AC adapter), but I really need some sleep right now.